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Thursday, September 23, 2010

This is in no way surprising, given President Obama's lack of leadership on repealing the policy. Though he technically has to defend the current law and appeal the judges ruling, we are seeing just how much he has used LGBT americans for political gains...

The Department of Justice asked a federal judge Thursday to continue enforcing the military's ban on gay and lesbian service members, despite a ruling earlier this month that struck down "don't ask, don't tell" as unconstitutional.In a 14-page filing, Justice Department attorneys argued that an immediate, permanent injunction against enforcing the law —one supported by Log Cabin Republicans, which successfully challenged DADT in court and has argued for a halt to all discharges of gay service members — would be "untenable."

The text of the Department of Justices legal filing can be found here.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Out of the great state of Florida, the 3rd District Court of Appeals - in a unanimous 3-0 decision - has ruled that the lower courts decision - that the gay adoption ban in Florida was unconstitutional - was correct.

According to the judgment, “Florida is the only remaining state to expressly ban all gay adoptions without exception.” Judge Cindy Lederman, after lengthy hearings, concluded that there is no rational basis for the statute. We agree and affirm the final judgment of adoption.

Excellent News out of Florida. Though this decision may be appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, it can be hoped that Governor Christ - since he is for gay people adopting - will not attempt to appeal the ruling. But the same can't be hoped for from current Attorney General Bill McCollum.

The Miami Herald also has an excellent piece on the history of the litigation here.

Today, just about half and hour ago, the Republicans in the United States Senate successfully blocked a vote on the military authorization bill, of which the "repeal" provisions of Don't Ask Don't Tell was a part. From the Keen News Service...

The Senate Tuesday afternoon rejected a motion to break a Republican-led filibuster against an annual defense spending bill that includes language aimed at ending the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law banning gays. The vote was 56 to 43.

The vote was uncertain all the way up to the vote, started at 2:30 Eastern Time, as Democratic leaders were reportedly trying to negotiate an agreement with one or two senators to reach the 60-vote count they needed to proceed. But Republican stood united in their contention that a procedural restriction placed on consideration of the annual defense spending bill was politically motivated to win the votes of LGBT people and Latinos for the mid-term elections in November.

This is a sad day in American Politics. Every one of the Republicans, as well as Senator Blanche Lincoln from Arkansas voted against the motion to break the filibuster. Susan Collins from Maine, a senator who does not believe the DADT policy is good for the United States Military voted with the Republicans because she believed that the republican amendments to the bill should have been looked at. In my opinion, she put party over the right thing to do, and her and Senator Lincoln are the true reasons that this bill failed.

All we can hope for now is that the judge in California issues an injunction stopping the enforcement of this unconstitutional policy.